Dr. Petillo's Blog

President Petillo's Blog: Friday, December 13th

We had our first significant snowstorm of the season this week with more expected tomorrow. Our campus is beautiful under a coating of snow.

I think we very successfully got everyone in the Christmas spirit last weekend with all the concerts and holiday festivities that were going on here. We had everything from Britten’s St. Nicolas and Irish music to the annual Lessons and Carols Service. A group of students also headed up to Boston to see the Jerry Goehring-produced stage version of A Christmas Story.

It was great to see so many of the faculty and staff at the Christmas party on Wednesday. Congratulations to the raffle winners, and thanks to Ann Miron for organizing such a great celebration and to the Chartwells team for the delicious food.

Also last weekend, Sacred Heart hosted the annual Tradition Fencing Tournament at the Pitt Center. Each year, SHU joins Penn State, Harvard, Princeton, NYU, Vassar and North Carolina at this tournament. This year, the women’s team from Temple and the men’s team from Stephen’s Tech were invited to fill in for the North Carolina teams who were unable to attend. Our men’s team was 2-3, and the women were 1-4 against tough competition—they were competing against some of the top teams in the country. I mention this not so much because of the score, but because it is a fascinating sport to watch. Incredible skill is involved, and our teams are more than up to the challenge of these top-tier competitors. It was also great to see a good crowd of parents and students turn out to support the Pioneers.

Last night, my wife and I hosted a holiday dinner for some of the University’s benefactors. It was a chance to thank them for their interest in and support of Sacred Heart. We were all treated to a spectacular performance by the Blended Hearts choral group, which further emphasized for our guests the great things that are happening here. 

As this will most likely be my last blog of 2013, I want to wish everyone in the SHU family a very merry Christmas and a happy, healthy and peaceful new year. Enjoy the time off with your family and friends. For those of you who are traveling, be safe.

I had a chance to talk about the characteristics that make SHU such a special community during the Advent Wreath-Lighting service on Wednesday. Several of the attendees mentioned to me that it was too bad more of you didn’t have a chance to hear those remarks, so I have decided to close out the year by sharing them with you:

Today’s reflection in the daily reflections for Advent and Christmas is titled the Generous Tiger. It is an Arabian fable about a traveler who came upon a fox who had lost his legs. Wondering how the creature survived, the man saw a tiger approach with meat in its mouth. After eating his fill, the tiger left the rest for the fox.

The traveler witnessed this for a few days and marveled at God’s generosity to provide. The man thought “surely God cares for me as much as he cares for this lowly animal. So here I will rest from my travels and trust God to provide.” Comfortable in the shade of the tree, he rested and waited. Days passed. God didn’t appear. Food and water were not provided. Near death, the man heard the voice of an angel call to him: “Open your eyes! Don’t imitate the fox—instead be the generous tiger.”

That is our calling here at the University. Make no mistake about it. We are here to nurture—with our thoughts, our time, our energies—the students who are entrusted to us. This is really the joy of the gospel, the joy of our mission. It is what separates us. It is this welcoming, this embracing, this learning that attracts students to this University.

 A young lady, Brianna Belmont, was accepted to start as a freshman this past September. During the late spring, she was diagnosed with leukemia, and that delayed her start. She used those months to undergo chemo. Yet she continued to work with admissions planning to begin here this coming spring semester. During Thanksgiving week, she unexpectedly passed away.

Kevin O’Sullivan went to the wake last week with a SHU certificate. Her parents told him that since her diagnosis, her anticipated arrival here is what kept her going as she awoke and as she prepared to sleep. Her dream was to become part of this University community. She connected with the community, the academics and our welcoming culture. She looked forward to continuing her community service here. From her brief visits, she felt very much at home here. This Sacred Heart community was her hope.

The day of the funeral, her guidance counselor called Kevin telling him that she had been buried with a Sacred Heart blanket. Brianna, in her brief visits here, saw and sensed things that we may too easily take for granted. She experienced the caring and the welcoming. She experienced “the generous tiger.”

We obviously will never get to know Brianna. But we certainly now know what made us so special for her in her fight for life. As we celebrate Emmanuel, God is with us, let us not forget how critical our generous presence is to our students and their nurturing.

President Petillo's Blog: Friday, December 6th

As we wrapped up the last full week of classes, it was another busy week on campus with events celebrating the Christmas season and our 50th birthday. This week’s 50th Anniversary events included a series of colloquia on global health, education and poverty—topics that need to be kept at the forefront. The passing of Nelson Mandela yesterday is also a reminder of the importance of stepping up to make a difference when things are inequitable.

Last night’s Choral Christmas Extravaganza was also a 50th Anniversary event. My wife and I, along with a nearly full house in the Edgerton Center, enjoyed the variety of Christmas music performed by our talented singers. The selections ranged from traditional to contemporary and even included a song written in 1963—the year this University was founded. It was a great way to get into the Christmas spirit.

Our tree-lighting ceremony on Monday was another wonderful kick off to the Christmas season. This year we lit a special tree near the library that was specifically planted to be our official Christmas tree. With music from the choirs, hot chocolate and cookies, it was a true Christmas celebration.

Also on Monday evening, the Civility in America series that Sacred Heart is co-sponsoring in Stamford featured Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman on “Civility in Baseball.” Following his talk, Vinny Ebenau ’14, who regularly interviews me for Eyes on SHU, had a chance for a one-on-one chat with Brian, which you can watch by clicking here. If you happen to be in Stamford on Sunday, you can see Brian and our own Bobby Valentine rappel down the side of the Landmark Square building where our new Graduate Center is housed.

This week was Winter Week for SHU students as they conclude classes and get ready to study for finals. Some of the fun events organized by the Student Events Team included mechanical snowboarding, gingerbread cookie decorating and “ice” skating. The agenda also features several holiday movies and a trip to Boston on Sunday to see the stage version of A Christmas Story, which was produced by our own Jerry Goehring.

This week, Sacred Heart had the opportunity to host a Homeland Security Executive Education Seminar, conducted by the Center for Homeland Defense & Security. The meeting was attended by police, fire and EMS officials from area communities, such as Fairfield, Bridgeport, Trumbull and Norwalk; representatives from the Connecticut Department of Emergency Management and Homeland Security, Connecticut State Police, FBI, United States Coast Guard and more. Public safety officers from Sacred Heart and Fairfield University were also in attendance. The group went over several emergency scenarios, including one involving an explosion during a SHU/Fairfield University basketball game at Harbor Yard. It was a great learning experience for members of our Public Safety team as well as a chance to network with our area emergency services partners.

On Wednesday night, members of Hearts United and the class of 2015 got together to write letters to the troops and put together care packages for homeless veterans. This is just another example of the many ways that the SHU community is caring for those who are not as lucky as we are during the holiday season.

On a more somber note, this week a young woman named Brianna Belmont, who intended to begin classes here at SHU in the spring, passed away. Brianna intended to be a teacher and had already gained experience by teaching catechism classes. She was also a strong leader and a compassionate volunteer—values that we strongly embrace here at Sacred Heart. Her family let us know of her passing and also shared how much she was looking forward to coming to Sacred Heart and joining our community. We were able to create a certificate for them acknowledging that she will always be a Pioneer and member of our family, and I’m told it meant a lot to them. Our thoughts and prayers are with her family and friends during this time.

I’m hoping that members of the faculty and staff will join me Monday night at 63’s to serve the students our traditional late-night breakfast as they get ready for finals. It’s always a great time and chance to show how much we support them and want them to succeed during this last stretch of the semester.

I am also looking forward to seeing faculty and staff at the Advent Wreath Lighting Service and Christmas party on Wednesday. This is the time for us to relax, enjoy each other’s company and celebrate the season. Also, there will be great raffle prizes, and you must be there to win. By that I mean, Jersey rules will once again be in effect, so you better listen closely when I start calling out those names!

For those of you who want a break from finals—or don’t have to take finals—there are a lot of festivities on tap this weekend. These include the New Haven Symphony Orchestra’s performance of Britten’s St. Nicolas and A Ceremony of Carols this evening, the Cherish the Ladies Irish Christmas performance tomorrow night and The Holiday Voyage band concert and Lessons & Carols service on Sunday.

I want to wish everyone a wonderful weekend. I also wish good luck to our students as they take their finals and safe travels as they head home for the break. Enjoy the holidays and break, and we’ll see you rested and ready to go in January!